By Mary Kathryn Carpenter

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — For the last 100 years, local farmers, small business owners and residents have had a helping hand in the form of the Adams County Extension Service.

In that time, the extension service has undergone many changes.

“When we started, it was pretty much just livestock and animals,” extension agent and Adams County Supervisor David Carter said. “Now, I would say 4H is probably less than 10 percent of that, and it’s more things that are relevant in the world today, (such as) computers, robotics and aerospace. We touch all those areas we didn’t touch 100 years ago.”

The local extension service office, operated by the Mississippi State University Extension Service, is staffed with experts who provide useful, practical and research-based information to agricultural producers, small business owners, youth, consumers and others.

Approximately 200 extension service staff, local residents and professionals gathered Thursday at the extension service’s Carthage Point Road office for a luncheon to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the extension service.

The local celebration is part of Mississippi State’s yearlong commemoration of the Smith-Lever Act, signed May 8, 1914, which created the national network of educators known as the Cooperative Extension System.

The local extension service receives as many as 300 calls a month from local residents wondering why their vegetables are not growing or what is causing their trees to die, Carter said.

The extension service’s staff makes approximately 20-30 home visits each month to help residents identify and solve gardening, farming and other issues, Carter said.

The extension service has changed a great deal since former home economist Virginia Salmon worked there in the 1960s.

The service previously had gender-specific educational courses, such as sewing for girls and cattle raising and agriculture for boys.

“But now those classes are taught to everyone not just specific genders,” Salmon said.

Salmon likened the extension service to an informal classroom.

Carter said he believes Adams County has one of the most powerful extension services in the state. The residents the extension service serves, Carter said, have helped the service build that reputation.

“That’s what makes us who we are — the people we serve,” he said.